piggott



No. 25,016. PATE-NTED AUG. 9, 1859.

' S. HOG'A, W. P. PIGGUTT 6: S. BEARDMORB.

MODE 0F GENERATING AND APPLYING ELECTRIC GURRENTS IN TELEGRAPHIN G.

n" JdW/CZW S. HOGA, W. P. PIGGOTT, AND S. BEARDMORE, OF THE COUNTY OF MIDDLE- Asn'r SEX, ENGLAND.

IMPROVED MODE 0F GENERATING AND APPLYING ELECTRIC CURRENTS IN TELEGRAPHING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 25.016, dated August 9, 1859.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that we, STANIsLAs HOGA, gentleman XVILLIAMPETER PIGGo'r-T, electrician,

and SEPTIMUS BEARDMORE, civil engineer, all

.of the county of Middlesex, in that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England have inventeda new and Improved Mode of Producing, Using, and Transmitting Electric Currents tor-Telegraph Purposes; and we do hereby declare that the folwhich is negative to zinc, but positive to G F,

'plates'of platinum or other metal which is also negative to A l). I H is the conduetingwire, which, when connecting A or C at oneend with .E at the other, or D or D or]? at one end with B at th'e other, produces the currents required. Fig. 2 exhibits more particularly the mode of working an electric-telegraph instrument. A B maybe supposed to be land on either side of G, D representing water. Nos. 1 and 10 represent telegraphic instruments or simple galvanometers ateach station; 2 and 9, levers or handles, each insulated in two separate places; 3,'zino'or other positive meta-l placed near No. l; 4, iron or other metal negative to No. 3, butpositive to No. 5, representing plat-inum or other metal negative to'both the others. Nos. 6 7 8 represent similar metals as Nos. 3, 4, and 5, and are placed in a similar manner near N0. 2, 6 being zinc, 7 iron, and S platinum. Nos. 11, 12, and 13 are wires connecting 3, 4, and 5 with the handle No. 2, and 14, 15, and 16 connect 6, 7, and S with the handle No; 9. 17 represents the conducting-wire, insulated at either end. The current of electricity operating on telegraphs has been hitherto generated at either end of the line by means of local batteries, made by placingthe negative and positive elements in juxtaposition in a cell or cells, and transmitted over the line-wire, returning by the earth, while the reverse current is obtained by changing the poles of the local batteries.

Our improvement, which for the purpose'of v designation istermed the globe-telegraph, consists in creating the current in the manner hereinafter described, and intransmitting it directly through and by means of the earth or natural body of water, using the line-wire only for the return-cuerent.

To obtai n the current we place in the earth, or

in a natural bodyot' water near each of the stations for communication, in the form of plates, the three substances 3, 4, and 5, possessing the relations to each other as above mentioned.

These metals or substances are not connected with each other, but can be connected with the insulated wire or wires H,.l*ig..1, or No. 17, Fig. 2, transmitting the return-current. By the alternate action of the zinc and platinum or similar positive and negative substances at one station with the iron or similar substance at the other the required current is obtained,

by the best authorities to benegative t'o zinc,

yet we have foundit, when much oxidized,- to be positive in relation to that'metal.

\Ve consider a very important part of the invention to be the adjustment and size of the plate-surtace to the distance of'transmissiou. This is regulated by the following rule: -Having ascertained the size or amount of platesurface required to work an instrumentut a given distance, the same instrument can be operated at any other distance by increasing or diminishing the amount of surface in proportion to the square root of the distance. Thus, if two square feet of zinc atone end of an insulated conducting-wire fifty miles long, i

or the other with the instruments 1 or 10, the

operator at B will, in order to operate on the instruments, break contact with d and instrument No. 10. A current will thereby flow from 6 through the earth to 4, and thehce through instrument No.1, by the wire, back to 6. Then, inorder to-produce a reverse current, the sender atB will place f(handle No. 9) in contact with the instrument No. 10, and the current will then flow from 4 through the earth to 8, and back through No. 10, by the wire, to 4; or, vice versa, the operator at A will break contact with a,(handle No. 2,) and thereby cause the current to flow from No. through the earth to No. 7, which, when at rest, is in contact with instrument No. 10. .To obtain a reverse current he will break contact [with O, (handle No. 2,) and thereby cause the current to flow from No'. 7 through the earth to No. 5, the. current returning along the wire to No. 7.

The plates may be placed in separate porous cells,'and, if it be necessary to have a large amount of surface, several plates of the same metal can be used in the same or-separate cells,

and be connected by a wire, so as to operate as one plate. To facilitate the generation of the current the usual mode of chemically excitingthese metals may be employed. 7 When a large amount of electric force,- or what is understoodby the word tension, is required, two, three, or more insulated wires may be used, electric action being caused alpn g each by means of the separate dissimilar metals, as above described, while the increased force on the instrument is obtained by connecting such two or niore wires with two or more coils round thesame helix, but unconnected with each other. t

When a pril'iting-instrument like 'Morses,

Siemens, or Hu'ghess is used, requiring onlya current in one direction for the purpose 'either of forming a temporary magnet or alterin g the condition of the magnetism in a permanent one already attached to the instrument, we need only apply so much-of our arrange.-

ment as willbenecessary to generate the cur-- rent only in one direction from the positive to the negative. substance through the earth, and using this when necessary to set a local battery atwork, by which to act on the instrument.

The production of electric currents by means of positive and negative substances placed in the earth, or-in natural bodies of water connected together by an insulated wire, has been suggested and described by Alexander-.Bain in the specification to his English Letters Patent dated May 27, 1843; but his manner of applying the suggestion to telegraphic purr poses failcd to lead to anypractical or useful result, and was abandoned. Our mode of arrangement is an improvement upon his, inasmuch as he expected to obtain the current but in one direction, whilev we are able, as above described, to obtain currcnts not only in one but in either direction, and by the discovery of the proportion the plate-surface should bear to the space through which the current is to pass we-are enabled to-construct and work lines of great lengths, especially whcnthe plates are used in porous cells.

We prefer to use between stations an insulated-connecting wire or cable of iron or galvanized iron or copper; but the circumstances which make such insulation necessary differ from those which necessitate an insulation in the case of existing telegraphs. The lines of these. last conduct currents of electricity from batteries, and such intense currents will, by the contact of such line-wire with the moistureof the earth or water, tend to run back to the batteries producing them. In our arrangement the produced currents have aftendency to pass from the positive to the neg :iye metal or substance through the earth or water, and the linewire for the return-current completes the circuit, and the necessity of insulation exists, becausewhere a line-wire is in contact for some distance with the earth or 'water it becomes,

according to its positive or negative quality,

earth or water-therefore is required. For the above reasons it can be more readily made and maintained in our mode than under the system at present in use; but where a large port-ion of the wire becomes uninsulated' by wear or other circumstances we can increase the'surface of the metals or substances, and thus compensate for the loss or change of relation.

' By our method theforination of a temporary magnet is effected orthe condition of a permanent magnet altered at pleasure in the usual by Letters Patent, is-

The applicationto telegraphic instruments of currents of electricity produced from metals or substances arranged in the earth or in natural bodies of water, in the manner and of the properties and relations above described.

STANISLAS HOGA.-

WILLIAM PETER 'PIGGOTT.

' SEPTIMUS BEA'RDMORE.

Witnesses JOHN T. PITMAN, T. P. .CAPP. 

